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A story from ABC news affiliate WJRT in Flint, Mich. reports one city councilman pushing to assess false alarm fines against the alarm companies reporting alarms to police.
Councilman Sheldon Neeley claimed in the story to believe that fees, currently charged to end users, should be shifted to the alarm company since they are the one's responsible for verifying the alarm and reporting it to authorities. Also, Neeley believes, alarm companies will be more capable of absorbing the cost.
Critics, including Global Security owner Tonya Burns, of Neeley's proposal claim the added cost would simply be passed on to end users, anyway. "There are a lot of variables when you go into deciding what caused the false alarm. How can you label it [the alarm companyâ€™s fault] depending onâ€”for example in the city of Flint, we have a lot of vacant homes and the landlords donâ€™t heat the homes," Burns said. "They put security systems in them because they donâ€™t want the piping, the furnace, the items stolen out of them, but they refuse to heat it, and that sets off the false alarms."
stay tuned for updates on this story.

Here are a couple news items:
First: Tyco International, parent company of ADT and SimplexGrinnell, announced last night that one of its board of directors is leaving the Breen team for a post in the Obama administration.
Former Tyco director Admiral Dennis C. Blair was confirmed on Jan. 29 as U.S. Director of National Intelligence.
Here's a description of what the the U.S. Director of National Intelligence does: The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) serves as the head of the Intelligence Community (IC), overseeing and directing the implementation of the National Intelligence Program and acting as the principal advisor to the President, the National Security Council, and the Homeland Security Council for intelligence matters related to the national security. Working together with the Principal Deputy DNI (PDDNI) and with the assistance of Mission Managers and four Deputy Directors, the Office of the DNI's goal is to effectively integrate foreign, military and domestic intelligence in defense of the homeland and of United States interests abroad.
In a prepared statement Tyco CEO Ed Breen said

"We congratulate Admiral Blair on his appointment to serve our country as Director of National Intelligence in the new administration of President Obama," said Ed Breen, Tyco Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Admiral Blair has served our Board with distinction and dedication since 2003 and we thank him for his many contributions to Tyco."

Here's some more info on Blair from the press release: Admiral Blair (USN, ret.) joined Tyco's Board of Directors in 2003 and previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of The Institute for Defense Analyses, a federally funded research and development center. Admiral Blair retired as Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Pacific Command in 2002, after more than 34 years of service in the United States Navy.
And an unrelated item. Things are looking good stock-wise for Brinks Home Security according to investor.com. This snippet from yesterday.

Brink's Home Security (CFL) rose 3%. The recent IPO hit a new high after a pullback to its 10-week line. This is the third straight day of gains in above-average volume. It's Relative Strength line is at an all-time high. Brink's is in the No. 4-ranked industry group.

VES announced Feb. 3 it had launched a new Web site that it promises has more information and is easier to navigate than previous incarnations. VES also promises further enhancements like a secure Dealer Area. It sounds like they're also going to be looking for site user input in the form of articles about installation and project experiences dealers have had. Interested dealers can submit their stories through the site. Here's what the release had to say about it:

If you have a story to tell or a site of specific interest please let us know we will be happy to consider it for inclusion on the site in the future. Remember this is your site which shoud provide information which you need, if you have any suggestions on how we can improve the site in future please let us know

Okay, looks like we've added a bunch of relevant jobs to our job board. No longer is it just Brink's jobs. Yes, some security guard jobs have now made their way into the results, but we'll work on weeding those out.
Feedback is appreciated.

If only because I'm tired of posting bad news, here's some good news from EasyLobby, which makes visitor management software:

EasyLobby, Inc. Reports Record Revenue and Profitability for 2008
Company achieves over 40% growth versus 2007's record performance
Needham, MA (PRWeb) October 14, 2008 -- EasyLobby, the industry leader in secure visitor management software and photo ID badge printing solutions, today announced that sales and profit for its fiscal year ending December 31, 2008 were the highest in the company's twelve-year history.
"EasyLobby continues to be viewed as the industry leader in the increasingly important visitor management segment of the security market, as more and more businesses and organizations are realizing that the paper guest book sitting in their lobby is not providing sufficient or accurate information about who is in their facilities, or why," said Howard Marson, CEO.
The company processed a record number of orders from new and existing Fortune 2000 companies, local and federal government agencies, multi-tenant buildings, hospitals, colleges/universities and K-12 school districts, both here in the USA and abroad. The company also saw continued and accelerating interest in its ability to tightly integrate its SVMâ„¢ (Secure Visitor Management) software with over 30 different Access Control Systems, giving customers the best of both worlds without sacrificing any functionality.

Of course, they're not a public company and don't supply any real numbers...

Panasonic said it was shutting 13 manufacturing sites in Japan and 14 abroad by the end of March. It also plans to lay off about 15,000 workers, or 5 percent of its work force, by March 2010. Half of the cuts will be made in Japan.

Obviously, Panasonic is a huge company, and there's no real way to tell how the security division might be affected from that statement, but I'm going to put a couple emails out and poke around the Internet and see what I get.
It seems that this is mostly a consumer thing, though:

Panasonic, along with Mitsubishi Motors and Mazda, also joined the rapidly lengthening list of companies to sharply revise their full-year outlooks Wednesday, with Panasonic now projecting a net loss of 380 billion yen or $4.2 billion for the year ending March 31, rather than the 30 billion yen profit it forecast on Nov. 27. Mitsubishi expects a net loss of 60 billion yen and Mazda 13 billion.
The speed of the demand downturn in recent months has taken manufacturers and economists by surprise, and forced many companies to sharply lower profit warnings made only months or even weeks ago.

Basically, consumers, especially American consumers, just decided not to buy anything for a while. That might not directly affect security sales, which aren't really consumer driven. However, if you're trying to sell Panasonic video systems into retail, you might have a problem. Anything consumer-dependent is getting hammered right now.
In other bad news, the Times says Angel investors are shying away from start-up tech companies. That could be bad for continued innovation in the security technology.

Do alarm business in Virginia? The Virginia fire fighters union is hoping, once again, to raise revenue by taxing your alarm accounts.
Proposals currently in the Virginia General Assembly call for annual taxes on each monitored account of anywhere from $1 to $2.50 per account, per month. Yikes.
John Chwat, NBFAA's legislative guy, says they could raise "tens of millions of dollars" with this scheme. He notes that a similar measure passed the Senate in Virginia last year and was defeated with the help of the NBFAA and the VBFAA.
Chwat said that if this passes in Virginia, other states may look at implementing these kinds of fees.
What should you do? Call the General Assembly,
Here's the number and some talking points from the NBFAA
If you live in Virginia, call the General Assembly NOW and vote.Â During business hours, call the Constituent Viewpoint Opinion Line at 804-698-1990 or 800-889-0229 and a general assembly staff member will record your vote by bill number and forward the information to your representatives.Â If you have employees or subcontractors with whom you work, share this information and encourage them to call.
Â
If you do business or live in Virginia, visit, telephone, fax, email or text the members of the Virginia State Senate and House of Delegates who represent where you live, where your business is located, or for whom you are the security services provider and communicate your displeasure with turning an industry of mostly small businesses into tax collectors.Â Links are listed below.
Â
Tell them:Â
The bill is a "tax" on businesses and customers in the state
The fees originally envisioned covering just firefighters but has now increased to other state and local employees, increasing the bill's cost to the industry
There is no limit to the fees proposed-in just one month since introduction, fees in the bill to monitoring companies have jumped from $1.00 to $2.50 and they are now considering broadening this legislation to local employees
The legislation was not reported in 2008 despite passage in the State Senate
The state has no idea how many customers nor businesses will be impacted to pay for the benefits
It's unfair to single out one industry
The following are important links for contacting the Virginia legislature:
Â
If you are a resident of Virginia, you may follow this link to findÂ your specific Representative and/or Senator:
http://conview.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf/main?openform
Â
For those out of state, the following is a link to the House of Delegates and Senate member roster. You mayÂ click on each members name for further information:
Â
Representatives: Â
http://dela.state.va.us/dela/MemBios.nsf/MWebsiteTL?OpenView
Â
Senators:
http://sov.state.va.us/SenatorDB.nsf/$$Viewtemplate%2Bfor%2BWMembershipHome?OpenForm
Â
Link to Committee Pages:
http://legis.state.va.us/1_cit_guide/committees.html
Â
Link to House Appropriations Committee:Â
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?091+com+H02
Â
Link to Senate Finance Committee:Â
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?091+com+S05

HAGERSTOWN, Mdâ€”A public hearing held Feb. 3 found the Washington County Board of County Commissioners discussing a proposed false alarm ordinance. The ordinance as proposed looked to collect fines from consistent false alarm generators rather than punish, with a high yearly permit fee, all alarm users, most of whom, according to the Washington County Sheriffâ€™s Office, are not consistent repeat false alarm offenders.
Washington County Sheriff Douglas W. Mullendore said the ordinance passed, but not as originally proposed. â€œThere were some modifications to it. We did agree to drop the fee for the initial permit, and we also dropped the business permit, as well as the reinstatement fees,â€ Mullendore said. â€œIt permits us to do the false alarm violation fees. Those are still established at $30 for residential, $60 for business." Mullendore said the first two violations result in a warning, while the third violation is when the fees kick in, adding $20 per residential violation and $25 per business violation to the respective base fees up to a maximum of $100 per violation for residential and $200 per violation for business. A recent story in the Herald-Mail claimed that business fines were capped at $250, but the Washington County Sheriff's Office assures me that $200 is the correct number. The new ordinance will take effect Jan. 1, 2010. â€œThatâ€™s because weâ€™re in the process of doing a consolidated emergency communications center,â€ Mullendore said, â€œand we wanted to be sure that was up and running before we try to administer this.â€
According to Mullendore, permits will still be required but will have no associated cost. If alarm owners choose not to get the appropriate permit there will be additional fees to pay. â€œThere would be a response the first time,â€ Mullendore said. â€œThe second time, if [a business owner with an alarm system] still hasnâ€™t gotten the permit, then it would be $60 violation fee.â€
Mullendore said that to his knowledge there were no industry professionals present at the public meeting, held here at the Washington County Administration Building. â€œThere were a couple of citizens there, but we addressed all their issues prior to,â€ Mullendore said. â€œThere were actually no public comments whatsoever.â€

It's a sign of the times: All of a sudden everyone's got a job board.
Maybe you saw ours. It kind of whiffs. The service doesn't accept php files (or something like that) and implied to us that there would be a lot more jobs in the initial phase than there actually are.
Anyhoo, it still might catch on if you post some jobs and resumes. It's worth a try. Also, if you're hiring, contact me and I'll let you post jobs for free (I think I have that power).
Also, check out this new job board for those of you with security clearance. There are some videos and whatnot to help you understand the government hiring process (with that stimulus bill going through, you can bet Uncle Sam is hiring) featuring someone or other who's supposed to know all about it.
All I know is senior technical recruiter Maureen Conte of Intelligence Consulting Enterprise Solutions, Inc., apparently speaks like she lives in 1954.
"I'm always eager to assist job seekers with practical, real-world advice," says Conte. "Working with ClearedJobs.Net to help security cleared job folks improve their job searching and interview strategies via online video allows me to help job seekers beyond job fairs. I commend ClearedJobs.Net for taking the lead in helping our men and women in uniform to make a smooth transition from military to civilian employment in the security cleared arena."
(You see why I hate press releases? It sounds like everyone made a pact to talk like a fifth grade teacher. Who uses the word "commend?")
Anyway, layoffs are happening and people are looking for work. I'll keep posting things as I find them that might be of help.

The city of Wichita, Kan. has announced it will hold an informational meeting in conjunction with the Public Safety Corporation aimed at reducing false alarms. All alarm installation and monitoring companies with clients who reside or do business in Wichita are encouraged to attend the meeting, which will be held Feb. 20 at 2:00 p.m. at the Wichita Police Department.
The Wichita PD asks that if you can not attend, or if you have questions regarding the city's ordinance or the false alarm reduction program, you contact them by email or call 316-268-4525.